Lonely Capital

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here, as I simply didn't have time, but above all no internet; but more on that later.

The flight from Adelaide to Perth was quite relaxing even though I sat next to a 35-year-old lady from NZ who smelled like cigarettes and alcohol, and she just told me her life story without me asking. Well, at least the flight went by quickly. Still at the airport, I was supposed to meet one of my companions with whom I would explore the west coast for 15 days. But first, here are some impressions from the 'Lonely capital' Perth.

After spending the first night at OneWorldBackpacker, which was recommended by Jimmy I. (thanks again for that), I set out to find out the prices for camper vans for my planned tour. Whether STA, PeterPans, or whatever the agencies are called, it quickly became clear to me that they were way too expensive and not affordable for a poor backpacker!

Unfortunately, no carpooling came about, so I needed a plan B! As I said, after finding 2 people (I already met one of the girls at the airport), we quickly rented a car through Dertour (thanks to Sabine L.)

After 2 days in Perth, where there is not so much to see, I stayed with 3 students who introduced me to the drinking culture of the Aussies.... I won't say more about that... After being pretty hungover, I visited Fremantle the next day, but I couldn't really get excited about it! The visit to Scarborough Beach was much more relaxing, and I got to see the Indian Ocean for the first time! I would spontaneously say 'love at first sight' :-)

Sooo, 4 days and some beers later, we were ready to go. WA, as the locals say, here we come...  

Road Trip Part II Perth to Exmouth in 5 ActsGetting a taxi in Perth is not as easy as an amateur might think! After not having success on Williams St. and Wellington Bus Station, we organized a taxi number and ordered one at short notice.
Act 1 'The Car'Picking up the car and off we go... not so fast!!! An extremely unfriendly Austrian woman handed us the car, a Toyota Camry, and actually tried to sell us additional insurance, even though my voucher explicitly asked not to... typical Austrians....

We didn't get very far, as we still had to buy equipment like a tent, sleeping mat, and food for the next few days. After 100 km, we stopped at an overnight parking and set up our tents.

When we wanted to continue the next morning, nothing worked... the car wouldn't start, and we had to call the Road Assistance... the battery was completely dead and had to be replaced! This whole ordeal cost us almost a whole day! But in the scorching heat, we were finally able to continue towards Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles are limestone formations that have formed over thousands of years, there are various theories about how they came to be, and they are scattered sporadically over wide, yellow, undulating dunes.

Act 2 'Australia Day'

My fellow students from Perth had already warned me that on Australia Day, everyone is going crazy, having BBQs, and just enjoying themselves. Colorfully painted teenagers, families bathing in the Indian Ocean, and various music acts were offered in Geraldton, a small town on the west coast.
Unfortunately, I have to say that the next morning, we had to learn that not all Aussies are so funny, and wild camping is not allowed. Thanks to my persuasive skills, we were able to avoid the AUD 300 fine, but we could reduce it to AUD 100. That only temporarily dampened our enthusiasm. On the way to Kalbarri, we made a short stop in Port Gregory, as there are the Pink Lakes (artificially created lakes from which beta-carotene is extracted) to admire.
Act 3 'The Ranger'The next stop was Kalbarri National Park after attending the pelican feeding in the early morning hours (one of those animals even bit me directly).
Then it was from Lookout to Lookout, which annoyed me personally pretty quickly because it was always the same rocks from different perspectives...

In the evening, we continued to Denham, where we took a complete cleansing of our battered bodies in one of the public showers before spending the night in the car at a lookout.

Early in the morning, we went to Monkey Mia, where we could admire dolphins swimming just a few centimeters away from us and being really friendly. We spent the whole day sunbathing, swimming, and lazing around and in the evening, we all had a big, fat sunburn... the sun has an unimaginable power here!
To shower, we went back to Denham, where we got to know a long-haired ranger. Unfortunately, he had already seen us in town in the morning, and my excuse that we had just arrived made him quite angry. I was a dirty liar, we were using up the water here, not leaving any money in town, and just sleeping somewhere on the side of the road (the good man is right). WA is a World Heritage Area, and he would call his boss now and impose a fine on us. I just pretended to be dumb and said that I didn't understand what he meant and that I had to fetch my companion first. The end of the story directed us to the local campground, where we spent a peaceful night.

Act 4 'Shark Alarm'Coral Bay, or the beginning of the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park, was our next destination. The campground there was simply great, and to our amusement, we met two really cool Germans who had already met the ranger in Denham... very cool!!!
Snorkeling in an incredible underwater world with huge corals and many fish, manta rays, stingrays, and other things to admire in the depths of the ocean. Unfortunately, no pictures because we didn't have an underwater camera. In the midst of all the excitement, we completely forgot the fact that there are some reef sharks in these waters. We actually encountered an impressive one, and with pounding hearts, we quickly got out of the water... In retrospect, we could laugh about it, but in the first moment, it was quite eerie! We spontaneously decided to stay one more night and only left for Exmouth the next morning. On the way, there were the Stromatolites..

Arriving in Exmouth, we decided to spend the day with various walks. Cape Range National Park has a lot to offer. See for yourself!
Day 2 was spent snorkeling again in Tourquoise Bay and Oyster Stack, where we were able to admire huge turtles. It's really funny how fast a turtle can move when it has to :-) Here too, we ran into the two Germans again, this time in a supermarket before we headed inland.
Act 5 'The Journey Back'Of course, a short detour to Karijini National Park was a must. But since our car couldn't drive on most dirt roads, there were only a few walks that we could explore. The Fortescue Falls were filled with plenty of water, and after a little swim, we met our Germans again (not for the last time).
A stormy night in the car with so much rain that you couldn't see your hand in front of your eyes led to me having a pretty sleepless night and having to embark on our last walk the next morning. Since everything was flooded, we had to make our way through bushes, bodies of water, etc. to get back to the waterfalls in the end.
Via Newman, we then headed back towards Perth through the interior. I won't say much about it because it was simply about covering kilometers. On the last day, we spent time on the beach in Perth and in the evening at a 5-star campground with private showers and swimming/hot tub.
But to conclude, a little anecdote: when we returned the car, we were asked to wash it because it was so dirty. After a long back and forth, I convinced the rental company that we would only spray the car off with the existing pressure washer since we had already paid for the final cleaning. In the end, no one wanted to know anything about us having to wash the car at all... very strange, this Apollo car rental company...
Conclusion:
We drove almost 5000 km in 15 days, consumed about 400 liters of gasoline, and sometimes drove for hours without encountering a 'normal car', excluding road trains! Western Australia is simply huge, but definitely worth a visit